I am starting to build a magazine app. I would like the horizontal view to show the images and the vertical view to show the text. If the viewer decides, while reading the text in the vertical position, to turn the ipad horizontal and look at some images, and then decides to go back to the text by returning the ipad to the vertical position; is it possible for the ipad to "remember" where the viewer had scrolled down to, or do they have to start at the top every time?

When I read something I want to read it without having the layout jumping all over the place.

I don't recall the exact version of the iOS but when it was released, there was a huge outcry over the inability to lock the device orientation.

@Adi, perhaps your customers demand it but I think if you look around you'll see many single orientation publications out there. It's less labor intensive and far less expensive to produce and there's less room for errors. But if you can get your clients to pay for it, all the more power to you.

Thanks Bob. I guess it's up to the individual viewers preferences. Obviously there are plenty of successful dual orientation apps out there, but not too many that have a completely difference experience between the vertical and horizontal views. I think that Time magazine did it initially, but I'm not sure how they do it now...

By "customer demand" I'm referring to the publisher and not to the actual reader.

From some reason, all the publishers I'm working with tend to favor dual orientation.

@Bob,

Personally, I've seen magazines switch from dual to single orientation and found it to be a very wise decision.

On the design team manager side, I totally agree with you. Dual orientations is much more hassle. If it was to me, I'd suggest that they'll abandon the whole dual orientation idea, make the choice between portrait or landscape and stick with it for eternity, but if they're willing to pay for the extra work and time required to create the 2nd orientation (which they do), then they'll get it.

On the reader side, I sometimes find it easier to switch between orientations in different reading poses.

In a small experiment I run during one of my DPS classes, I asked 23 students to download a simple tutorial folio to thier tablet device and follow it to create the described overlay effect. They were not told that the folio had both orientations.

The result: 5 didn't even check for existing orientations and used the portrait. Out of the 18 that did, 11 used the portrait orientation, while 7 found the landscape suits them better.